Nerdy Architecture
by Paradigm of Writing
Summary: She can't get rid of the blue eyed nuisance for all he's worth. No matter what she says, he's still there. No matter what she does, he's still there. Peeta Mellark will not get out of Katniss Everdeen's life, even if he's screwing it up. Maybe he's supposed to be sticking around. It might be for a greater good, and she just hasn't realized it yet.


**Hey everyone, Paradigm of Writing here with a brand new one-shot called Nerdy Architecture. I've done some rummaging with my thoughts and came across this idea with a KatnissXPeeta one-shot idea. Even though I ship Gale and Katniss more than Peeta with her, I do all the pairings just to get a feel for them. This is my first time writing this pairing, so it may be rocky. You're going to laugh during this, I promise you! Please enjoy Nerdy Architecture. *P.S*- This story is an AU, set in the modern times with current or old world events being mentioned in the story, so there are no Hunger Games, no Capitol etc... AU's for Hunger Games are my favorite type of one-shots to create, so this may end up pretty good or pretty bad depending.**

* * *

Katniss Everdeen sighed, running a hand across her braid, straightening the slender mahogany strands. Jumbled thoughts ran through her mind a mile a minute. The loudest ones of all were of her boyfriend, Gale Hawthorne. "_If you don't get rid of him Katniss, I'll break up with you. Boss told you to get rid of him a long time ago, but you decided against it. Haymitch hates people disagreeing with him, but he tried holding out for a few days. Peeta Mellark is ruining the business, and you. Wedding is off if you can't throw Peeta back on the streets where he belongs." _

Katniss was an architect, for the highest firm company in Chicago; District 12: Zone of Miners. Each building constructed by the men and women working in the company resembled some form of a mining town or structure. It changed the look of everything else around it, but that was the closest to a mining town you'd ever get. She had struck gold, literally, when a man named Finnick Odair was offering a major sum of money for a hotel to be constructed with a similar look to a town out in California during the Gold Rush period. Enter Peeta Mellark, an Afghanistan war veteran who came home after an injured arm and a minor form of PTSD.

The two had met in Afghanistan, Katniss had been sent to get inspiration from the rectangular prism shaped buildings and the dusty atmosphere for new design implants and creative bursts. During one of her daily excursions for creative release, an air raid from the United States rampaged the area. Her legs had almost been blown off from a dropping mortar, and she was almost crushed by a collapsing statue. Peeta Mellark, with one if his groups trying to get innocent civilians out of harms way, saved her from being flatted into a pancake.

Peeta, the next day, had to shoot a Afghan soldier who tried to kill his superior officer. The murder of the assassin disheveled Peeta so much, he broke into a panic attack and a full fledged trip to insanity. Katniss, on her returning flight, bumped into him. The glowing glint Peeta had in his eyes only a few weeks before was now a tarnished, feral glow. Katniss made a promise, a promise in writing. If Peeta ever needed a person to help him get back together again, he'd come find her and live with her till he became wholesome.

Not even two weeks after Peeta returned home, his sister Madge kicked him out of her house. Peeta, remembering Katniss's promise, came to live with her. His PTSD and awkward mannerisms didn't make a good combination. Three days ago, at a conference with Finnick Odair, Peeta embarrassed District 12: Zone of Miners, by setting numerous objects in the conference room on fire and nearly slitting Mr. Odair's throat with a butter knife. Haymitch, Katniss's boss, immediately told her to get rid of the man she took in or she'd be fired. Peeta Mellark was screwing everything up and causing her to lose focus. Gale, who was supposed to be married to her in less than three months, swore he'd cancel the wedding if Mellark did not get thrown out of her house by the end of the week. Stuck in ultimatum, Katniss had nowhere else to go, nothing else to do.

All day and all night she pondered on how she'd get rid of the boy with the striking blue eyes.

* * *

She sighed once more, tapping her braid against her shoulder as she tried for the tenth time in one hour to tell Peeta to get out of her world, out of her life. She stood from her desk, nervously; as if imaging Peeta in front of her smiling like the naïve idiot he was. She smoothed her sweaty hands against her jeans and tried once more.

"Peeta, Peeta sit down. Put down the tambourine," she said aloud, pretending he was really next to her sitting on the couch. "Now, as you know... there's a kind of chemistry between two people that can affect both people in very different ways. Now, just as there is some chemistry in you that makes it so you can enjoy my company, there's a chemistry in me that just wants to make me scratch your face off," she snarled, accentuating her point by clawing her hands and scratching at an invisible face. Katniss paused, and rubbed her forehead. She bit her lip hard, drawing blood. "No... no that won't work. Um," her eyes brightened as an extra idea came to her. "Peeta, it's time for you to leave! We needn't go into all the reasons. Let's just say it's something I've thought about for a long time and I've decided on,"

It sounded good to her, so she continued spewing whatever words she liked. "Now, I realize you saved my life. And... I owe you my life. Yes, I know that I promised, promised in freaking writing that as long as I was alive you could always have a person you could come to for help. I also realize I said that you could also have a place that you could come to if you needed help. I-" she paused, realizing she had nothing else to say. She screamed, throwing her hands up in frustration. Her eyes flickered over to her desk, an idea popping into her head. Ooh... this one was going to be good.

Standing upright against the wall was a T-square about four feet in length. This particular object was for creating straight lines on paper and helping to construct right angles. Katniss grabbed the metal tool and held it like a crossbow in her hands. She pictured Peeta standing in front of him, chained to the wall. "Peeta, you know what this is," she whispered menacingly. "It's a crossbow," She fired the imaginary weapon three times, laughing as the fake blood poured out of the body mirage. Laughing in an insane manner, she turned the 'crossbow' on herself. Katniss closed her eyes and 'shot' herself in the stomach. She flopped to the ground, pretending to die. Her eyes snapped open, clearly she knew that it was a lie. She didn't just kill Peeta, and she didn't commit suicide. She stood up quickly, her own actions scaring her.

She rubbed her face a couple of times. "Okay, clearly this isn't working," she whispered to herself, shaking. She sat down in her chair near her desk, grabbing a pencil and sketching out a few primary staged buildings. "Concentrate. If I just concentrate." For maybe three minutes or so, she began sketching away and thinking of new building designs. A smile etched itself to her face. When she began drawing, nothing could deter her away from a state of euphoria.

Well, only one thing and that's Peeta Mellark.

Light footsteps padded across the wooden floor, and Peeta, soaking wet and wrapped in a bathrobe appeared. He looked around the living room frantically, searching for something. His eyes lit up when he saw Katniss, but then a scowl spread across his face as he noticed her gleaming smile. "Hey, Everdeen," he called. "What are you smiling about?"

Katniss's grin faded, her eyes darting to the veteran in her living room. She drew the outline of the first floor for a house. "Oh no." she murmured.

Peeta inched closer, slowly. "I'm not smiling. You wanna know why? Do you want to know why I'm not smiling? Huh?"

Katniss slammed the pencil down onto the table, Peeta's antics had gotten to her. Truth be told, she couldn't stand him. He was more annoying than an ADHD kid without medicine, but yet lovable as could be. He was hard to hate, but very hard to love all the while. "All right! What's the problem?" Annoyance was ripe in her tone.

"You really want to know?"

"Sure."

"Really?"

Through clenched teeth, Katniss hissed. "Peeta."

Peeta flopped down onto the couch, the furniture creaking underneath his muscular weight. "You know my sister, Madge?"

"Sister Madge, of course I know about her." Katniss replied sarcastically, facing a window.

"Well, I called her up this morning and you want to know what?"

"What?"

"She moved." Peeta said.

Katniss froze, turning to face Peeta slowly. "_This cannot be happening," _she thought. Then, aloud she spoke to Peeta, "Moved where?"

"That's the thing, she didn't leave a forwarding address or anything," Peeta rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It was really strange."

Katniss stood, tapping her nails against her desk. "Peeta, if Madge truly moved, surely she'd want to keep in touch."

Peeta bounced back up to his feet. He had a habit of flouncing around when he talked, always having a hard time staying still. "I don't know. I just hope she sends my things."

Katniss frowned, moving closer to Peeta. "Your things? What things?"

He began counting off his fingers. "Well, I'm gonna need my clothes because Gale's aren't starting to fit me anymore. I'd love to have my chemistry set..."

"Um..." Katniss trailed off, looking down at her feet.

"My Chihuahua..." Peeta exclaimed happily.

"Your Chihuahua?"

"Oh, yeah. Katniss, you should totally see him. He's really lifelike!"

Katniss pressed a gentle hand against his chest. "Um, Peeta, wait. Where would 'sister' Madge send you your things?"

"Here?"

She paused. "Here? As in, here like my house?"

Peeta blinked, frowning. "Well, this is where I am right?"

Katniss began pacing. Yep, the pacing had made a return. She hadn't felt this nervous since she nabbed the job of being Haymitch's top proprietor and designer. "Peeta... Peeta, Peeta please sit down." she ordered, taking a seat on the couch. She couldn't stand Peeta as it was, let alone him with all his things. It was time for her to kick him out, and it'd happen in a proper, professional manner.

"Of course." Peeta replied enthusiastically.

"I have something to say," Katniss breathed lightly, looking at her guest in the eye. "You're here and I'm here," She stopped, and bit her lip. "With me so far?"

Peeta actually had to rub his chin and stare at the clock before answering. "I'm a little lost."

Katniss wanted to burst out laughing, but actually made a worse reaction by frowning. "Peeta... all I said was that you're here and I'm here. What's there to be lost at?"

Peeta nodded, as if understanding. "Oh."

Her palms were getting sweaty again. "Okay, so... when two people are together a lot of the time, they can't help influencing each other and influencing each other's ability to function. That make sense?"

"You're here and I'm here!" he replied blissfully.

"Right..." Katniss trailed off. "So, clearly what we are talking about here is personality. I mean, I know there are some qualities in me that make me hard to be around with others. I'm sloppy, I'm rude, always getting lost, always losing things," she counted off the top of her head, slyly noting that Peeta was counting with her _and _having the temerity to nod his head with her. "Most people can't deal with that type of person. It's not their fault that they can't handle it, and it's not my fault that I'm like that. See my point?"

"Sure!" Peeta answered, bouncing in his seat.

Katniss rolled her eyes, he could be so childish sometimes. "Okay, so we have all these character traits..." She stood up and walked a few paces between her desk and the couch. She turned back to Peeta. "What if, just out of curiosity, somebody were to say to you oh, I don't know... 'Get out of here and don't ever come back!' I mean, Peeta, I know it hurts and all, but if you were to step back and think about it, you could kinda see why someone would say that to you?" The last words were barely audible, as Katniss peeped them, scared of his reaction.

Realization dawned on the war veteran, a smile forming on his face. He nodded his head rather recklessly. "Yeah, yeah I sure do!"

A fire roared in Katniss's heart. Her eyes brightened, a light grin beginning to birth. "Really?"

Peeta stood, standing next to her. "Yeah! Like, I guess they might hate people that believe in God!"

The smile that she held onto vanished faster than a Venus flytrap killing a meal. "Oh..."

"Or maybe it's because I used to work in a factory." Peeta drawled on.

Katniss could feel the migraine sprouting, these happened on occasion. "Ahhh..." she whispered to herself, as if in pain.

"Or maybe it's because I have honest chalk on my hands-" he continued.

"Peeta, no," Katniss burst out from her desk. "No! There is not one single person on this planet that would hate you for-"

"Or, how about it's because I was in the war and they hate people with purple hearts?" he asked one last time, hoping to finally win the exciting game that was hating himself.

"Oh God, kill me now." Katniss groaned, slamming her forehead into the desk rather hard. She was hoping for a concussion.

"What is it Katniss?" Peeta wondered concernedly, rushing to his host's side.

"Nothing. It's nothing, Peeta," Katniss shook off his warm touch. She stood. "Just let me ask you this one question. What would you say are the main differences between you and I?"

"None." he stated simply.

She raised an eyebrow. "None? You mean, you and I are-"

"The same, pretty much. Yeah." he finished for her.

Katniss faced the T-square still propped up against her desk when she put it back only a few minutes ago. She grabbed it, and held back into the former position. "Peeta, do you know what this is," she asked him, prying for a decent answer. Peeta shrugged, just staring at the metal object. Katniss's grip tightened on the T-square, the thought of her shooting Peeta with a crossbow reentering her mind. She sighed a few moments later, realizing how fantasizing about murdering him was going to get her nowhere. She lowered the T-square. "It's a T-square. I've got to get back to work." She set the T-square back up against the wall, sat down in her chair, and stared glumly at her drawing paper.

Peeta shrugged absentmindedly. "Well, that was fun. It was great." He turned to leave.

Katniss rummaged into her purse and pulled out a box of cigarettes. Grabbing her lighter, she lit it and puffed. "Great."

The smell of smoke made Peeta stop. "You smoke?" he asked her, turning back around.

Katniss took a drag, holding the cigarette between two fingers. "Yeah."

"Since when?"

"Since the airport."

Something dawned on Peeta's face, and he raced over to her. "That reminds me. I bet you I don't know what you're looking for."

Katniss extinguished the fire by smashing the paper product into the ashtray. "What?"

"Right?"

"What?"

"Wait," Peeta exclaimed, holding his hands out. "Don't even answer that!"

"Answer what Peeta?" She was standing now, her hands balled into fists by her sides.

"Or do you wanna guess?"

"Guess what?"

Peeta blinked. "Huh?"

"Guess _what_? Peeta, what do you want me to guess?" She practically screamed her words at out him, spit flaying in every direction.

"I forget." Peeta remarked innocently.

"You're hopeless." Katniss murmured, sitting down in her chair.

"You give up," Peeta teased. He sat back down on the couch. "That's okay. I'll just give it to ya. You know that picture of the hotel? The Finnick Odair model?"

Katniss froze from her seat, her head looking at Peeta slower than any movement on Earth. "That's what I was looking for." Two days ago, after the conference, the model of Finnick Odair's dream hotel went missing inside her home. She turned the entire place upside down to find the drawing, it was that important to her.

"I know. You said it was missing something right?"

"Peeta, I may have. I mean, if you've seen it... that's my final color rendering!" she cried.

"I know," Peeta replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a crumbled piece of drafting paper. Katniss's heart welled in her throat, her breathing hitched. _The Finnick Odair model. _"So this morning, I held it up to the light-"

"Peeta..." Katniss said her name dangerously calm and low.

"And I looked at it from the right, and then from the left, and then from the right again." he continued babbling.

"Peeta, don't tell me you-"

"Wait, just wait a minute Everdeen," Peeta ordered. "I finally realized what it was missing. It was so simple. All it needed was a chimney."

Katniss raised an eyebrow at him, she couldn't believe her ears. "A chimney?"

"A chimney," Peeta said, solidifying his answer. He pointed at the picture, which had a gaping black colored in rectangle on the left side of the drawing, and a failed attempted one by the large red X across it. "Well, don't like at the X one, that was a goof. But, you see it? Top left corner. Right there."

Katniss blinked, leaning in forward. "Um..."

"I have no idea where I got the idea." Peeta pondered aloud.

"Um... Peeta?"

"God I guess."

Katniss shot to her feet and marched over to Peeta, her eyes could not be deceiving her. "Peeta! Did you put a hole in this?"

Peeta nodded, racing by her. Katniss held the picture up to the light. Where the newly drawn chimney was, also was being accompanied by a massive hole of maybe four to five inches. "Hold still," Peeta instructed calmly, grabbing Katniss's somehow still smoldering cigarette from the ashtray. He stood next to Katniss on her left, and slid the cigarette into the hole. Smoke billowed against the paper, similar to a chimney affect. He giggled. "Cool, huh? I mean, I knew I was a lot of things, but I never knew I was an architect."

Katniss removed the cigarette from it's position and grabbed the ruined drawing. She set the picture down at her desk, and stared at it hopelessly lost. "I... uh... I don't know what to say?"

"Well, Katniss, what would you do if you were me in this situation?" Peeta asked from the couch.

Katniss frowned, reaching for a pen to write a message down on her hand. "What?"

"You know, in the architect business. You could show me around, let me get comfortable with the ropes. Introduce me to the mechanics and such." Peeta explained.

Katniss began writing a message on her hand. _Destroy picture and create new one. Email Finnick and apologize. Maybe even kill Peeta Mellark for his insolence. _"Oh..." she trailed off.

An idea came to Peeta. He leapt to his feet. "Hey, maybe we could be partners!"

Katniss was so shocked, she drew her hand across her palm so fast, the pen actually cut a gash into her skin. "Ahhh!" she hissed.

Peeta blinked, his eyes widening. "Oh my god, you're bleeding! Let me look at that." He grabbed her right wrist hurriedly.

"OW!" Katniss cried, wincing at the pain.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I, I know just the thing for that." Peeta said.

"I'll take care of it." Katniss murmured, reaching for the gauze.

"No, let me do it," Peeta insisted. "It's my mother's kitchen remedy. You just rub it into the cut. I'll be in the kitchen heating up the salt!"

Katniss outstretched her left hand. "Peeta- I'm- Don't!" Realizing he was not going to stop from helping her, yet again she was in his debt. She groaned, slamming her head against her desk once more.

She owed him again. Failed to get rid of him.

Oh shit.

* * *

**I'm still laughing. Like, I'm wiping tears from my eyes. I hope you all enjoyed this one-shot as much as I did. If so, leave a review! I'd love to hear your comments and maybe I'll write another chapter to this as a follow up of sorts! Love you all!**

**~ Paradigm**


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